Sophie Hutchings - A World Outside

A Closer Listen

Until now, Sophie Hutchings has been associated with the coastline, but A World Outside stretches her geological boundaries to mountains and deserts and her colors from the deepest blue to burnt umber.  The album is the result of a road trip deep into the heart of Australia, where she encountered indigenous history and was inspired to invite Yolngu songman Rrawun Maymuru and others to participate in the process.  The result is a warm and inviting travelogue, as if the listener were a passenger in Hutchings’ backpack.

While the piano is still the primary instrument, the ivory notes are joined by electronics and strings.  In “Drawing the Stars,” an early drone casts images of the vast orange landscape, implying shimmering sand and heat mirages.  Crickets and lush birdsong remind the listener that the places one considers abandoned may be teeming with life.  The visualizer for “A Dead Sea’s Ripples” displays rich hues of brown, a counter-balance to the forest’s spectrum of green.  Drawing back, the camera reveals water, although nothing close to a surfable wave.  When drums surface in “The Golden Eternity,” the album shifts to a higher level.  Choral vocals enter midway, producing a light astonishment: this is a Sophie Hutchings dance track!

The field recordings ground the music, providing it with a sense of place.  Coyotes howl in “The Elusive Land,” a forlorn song that sounds like abandonment.  In return, Hutchings plays them a soft serenade.  Maymuru surfaces on “Cloud Beneath the Sea,” channeling land and loss.  In this short period, Hutchings has brought to the album a new intimacy, collaborating with landscape, then animal, then indigenous human.  Human cries in “Into the Wild” serve as counterparts to those of the wolves: people, too, sing sorrowful songs.  Connections can be made everywhere, if one is willing.  The title is shared with Jon Krakauer’s famous biography (later a movie) of Chris McCandless, demonstrating the dual danger and allure of the wilderness.

“Swimming Into the Light” is an emergence of sorts; the title is both literal and metaphorical, a connection back to Hutchings’ beloved sea, and a statement of growth, healing and illumination.  The violin lifts the spirits like the sun beckoning the swimmer to surface.  This leads directly to “Eyes on the Sun,” which implies eyes wide open, a knowledge of history and land, a respect for local cultures, a peaceful balance.  Hutchings returns to the shore, but will always carry a little desert inside.  (Richard Allen)

Available here